‘Deliveroo needs to show a little more love for its couriers’

You’ll doubtless have seen them dashing around, turquoise jackets catching your eye. Bristol’s Deliveroo couriers – on bikes and scooters – have multiplied in the last few years.

But not all is rosy in the world of couriers. Next Thursday 14th February, on Valentine’s day, they are planning their third strike this year, joining other planned strikes across the country, such as in Manchester. This will be a ‘flash strike’, meaning that the time of the strike will be announced on the day, and will last only one hour. They will gather on College Green afterwards for a beer and music.

Organising the strike in Bristol is the Bristol Couriers Network – one of the many new courier organisations sprouting up across the country from Brighton to Leeds. The Bristol Couriers Network came together late last year, after riders joined the nation-wide ‘Fast Food Shutdown’ on the 4 October.

Paul, one of the founding members, said “I realised that I wasn’t the only one who had noticed a drop in pay and who was feeling in the dark and dissatisfied. Since our individual attempts to talk to management had no effect, we decided to see what we could do together.”

The strike on the 14 February comes on the back of two further strikes already this year, on the 18 January and on the 1 February.
Both times couriers – cyclists and scooter riders – turned their apps off and gathered at College Green with specific demands for Deliveroo. They then marched through Bristol, asking management at Deliveroo partner restaurants to turn their apps off in solidarity.

So why this sudden surge of activity? Deliveroo claims that pay for riders in Bristol is increasing. Yet couriers in Bristol across the country claim that recent changes have led to them working longer distances for less money and resulted in lower take home pay. They also feel confused and angry about the mysterious way the price they receive per order is calculated, and which Deliveroo refuses to explain.

Bristolian courier Tyrone said “You just get offered a price, and you just have to take it or leave it within the time limit. You don’t know how it’s calculated. Sometimes you’ll get £3.90 and then the next drop is the same distance but it’s £4.10. It’s confusing and makes me feel like I’m being played.”

As part of their work riders have to wait, unpaid, at a restaurant to collect their orders, and sometimes for up to 40 minutes. They also mention that too many riders on the road means that it’s sometimes hard to even make the hourly minimum wage. Deliveroo and UberEats have seen business boom in the past couple of years – especially in cities like Bristol. Last year, Deliveroo opened up whole new areas in East Bristol where people could order from.

So what do Bristol’s couriers want? It is estimated that there are between 400 and 700 active Deliveroo couriers in Bristol, of the 15,000 estimated in the UK. Many are students, but many are not. For many it is their only source of income.

Bristol’s Courier Network has some clear demands, emblazoned on colourful posters at the protests. The main four are paid waiting times at 17p per minute (£10 an hour), a minimum pay of £5 per drop, a freeze on hiring new riders, and no victimisation (i.e. no backlash from Deliveroo) for riders who strike.

In Bristol, Deliveroo riders are not paid an hourly wage and are classed as self-employed, which allows the multi-billion-dollar company to avoid usual business costs such as holidays, sick leave, pension, tax and national insurance and pass them on to its couriers.

Deliveroo claims that this suits riders as they can work whenever they want. But whilst couriers did appreciate the flexibility, some I talked to argued it wasn’t as simple as this. Despite Deliveroo’s claims that this offers complete flexibility, there have also been cases of Deliveroo sacking riders who don’t work enough, or who reject too much orders. Recently over 100 riders were let go without notice just days before Christmas with no right to contest the claims of fraud.

Some courier services offer both flexibility and a steady wage. Dara, a student at UWE, did only a few shifts with Deliveroo before moving to courier service Stuart. “The pay is so much better!” he said when asked why, “There’s a minimum hourly wage guarantee. So you’re not stressed about not getting orders, or food taking ages once you get to a restaurant.”

Alongside not having access to workers’ rights such as holiday and sick leave, being self-employed means riders provide all their own equipment and maintenance. Scooter drivers in particular– who also tend to have this as their main or only income – spend a considerable amount of money on the scooter, petrol and its maintenance.

Riders also report very little security – and a setback with health or bike issues can set a rider back for days. One rider I spoke to had broken his wrist whilst doing orders in the rain, and lost two weeks worth of income before being forced back on the road before medically advisable.

Deliveroo was recently valued at £2bn. Its revenue rose 116 per cent to £277m in 2017 as gross profit grew from £1m to £64.3 m, according to annual results released last year.

Courier Paul said “We do all the work – deliveroo just provides an app. Yet they take the lion’s share of the profits and even cut our pay despite charging customers more. All we’re asking is that they pay us properly”.

This Valentine’s day will see Bristol and other cities around the country demanding that the billion- dollar company shows a little more love for its hard-working couriers.

Read more: Deliveroo and Uber Eats staff to strike in Bristol